Well, hey there. Gretchen here. After a long hiatus :), I am back in the blogosphere. Did you miss me?

Let me be the first to officially welcome you to our new home, the JobSyntax Blog.
I’ve got so much to write, but I’ll need to save all the juicy news
and advice for future blog entries. So I’ll use this first entry to
tell you a little bit about how we got here. It’s been a long, crazy
journey.

As long-time readers know, until a few days ago, I was a Microsoft recruiter.
About 2 ½ years ago, I was hand-picked to join a start-up team within
the company’s recruiting organization. Also chosen for that team was Zoe Goldring.
We were tasked with building a community and pipeline of qualified and
interested software developers for the company’s openings. (Is this
starting to sound like the pilot for a cheesy sitcom yet?) :)

Two years ago, Zoe and I founded the Technical Careers @ Microsoft weblog (JobsBlog) as a way to connect with the developers who were latching onto the blogging phenomenon. Quite honestly, we had no idea what were doing and definitely not what we were getting ourselves into.

Being the public faces for Microsoft’s technical recruiting effort
was both extremely exhilarating and challenging at the same time.
Personally, I loved that I had such a positive impact on so many
applicants. I joined the recruiting industry
because I wanted to improve the candidate experience, and each day, I
saw tangible results of my efforts. I impacted so many more candidates
via our blog than I ever could as regular recruiter
...
Time moved along, and many things changed in our lives – yet we
still held onto our promise to each other. Finally, we decided the time
was right … Personally, we were both ready for new and different
challenges in our careers. Professionally, it seemed that our
collective passion for technical recruiting, a positive customer and
client experience, and strong jobseeker and employer education coupled
with, well, the returned rise of the tech market meant it was time to strike out on our own. The time was right. The time is now.

So here we are. Welcome to JobSyntax, and we look forward to all the good times ahead. Let the games begin!

It's great to see Zoe and Gretchen convert their skills and blog
cred into their own company. There are a number of folks who toil in
the B0rg cube who I've wondered why they don't strike out on their own, Robert Scoble
for one. Whenever I decide to hang my hat up at the B0rg cube and go
wage slave for someone else, I'll be sure to give the Moongals at
JobSyntax a call.